hey, does anyone get the conflict here? um.. i don't know if it's an actual LAW, but there's a pretty common sense rule: don't leave your stereo on the street. i don't see much point in making a legal investigation into it. or philosophizing about morality.

if you have something valuable, try your hardest not to upload it to the web. and certainly don't give it an RSS feed?! thinking copyright is even a viable option is just fundamentally ridiculous. it's like answering "should letters be banned from words?" will only muddle the issue.

This is really funny. I think they missed the ball. Think they've since updated the page, but even a few months ago, the NPR site had this ...

(a) you do not modify or delete any of the RSS feed content

(b) you do not redistribute the RSS feeds

(c) you do not post full-text stories other than as includedin the RSS feed

On Jul 19, 2005, at 3:13 PM, ryan griffis wrote:

This isn't anything new, but i thought i'd repost it here (from an archive issues list).

Begin forwarded message:

The Editorial by Lesley Ellen Harris in Volume 2005,Issue 1, The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter,deals with copyright ownership in blogs - it isreproduced below. For further information on thisprint newsletter, see www.copyrightlaws.com .

The Internet continually forces us to test theapplication and flexibility of current copyright lawto new modes of communications and media. The Internethas already spawned debate and lawsuits abouthyper-linking, P2P file sharing, and the removal ofcopyright management information and technologicalprotections. A newer Internet activity, bloggingresulting in Weblogs, is now being discussed in thecopyright arena. A blog is basically a stream ofconsciousness discussion available to the public atlarge. Individuals keep these blogs on every topicimaginable. Blogs are original material, and once theyare fixed in some form, saved digitally or in a printout, they are protected by copyright in most countriesaround the world. In fact, they would be protected for50 to 70 years after an author's death - much beyondthe life of any blog itself.

Blogs are becoming more popular amongst professionals,and certain employees are even encouraged to createblogs based on their work. This raises interestingissues concerning copyright ownership in the blogs. Ifan organization requires blogging as part of theduties of an individual, it is likely that theemployer owns the content in the blog, just like theemployer owns other copyright-protected works createdby that employee in the course of employment.

However, if the blog is initiated by an individualthough it may discuss work-related issues, outside thescope of his employment, who owns the content in theblog? This is comparable to the situation where aprofessor writes a book related to, but outside theduties, of his instruction. This is often a gray issuein the academic world. University policies thatspecifically deal with such issues can help clarifythe situation. Also, a professor approaching hisuniversity prior to writing the book, may be able toclarify the situation, prior to a confrontation.

Many companies have yet to develop Weblog Policies,similar to their other integral policies. Thus,employees who discuss work-related activities aregenerally held to the rule of "good taste" in theirdiscussions, and of course, not spewing anyconfidential information. As is the case with manyInternet-related activities, would a written WeblogPolicy contradict the free flowing nature ofinformation in a blog, and perhaps weaken theeffectiveness of these blogs?

With ownership comes the issue of who may authorizereproduction of the content in a blog. Generally, onlythe owner may authorize others to reproduce a work.Would this be an organization or an individual? Orshould the whole notion of obtaining permission inrelation to blog content be mute, since the wholepoint of the blog is for as many people as possible toaccess and read it? The blogs by Sun Microsystememployees at blogs.sun.com take what I call acompromise position. These blogs are subject to aCreative Commons License. Thus, the blogs areprotected by copyright, however the rights areconveniently set out in a hyper-linked license and arebroader than those rights attached to mostcopyright-protected works.

To date, there are no lawsuits relating to ownership,reproduction or re-distribution of the content ofblogs. This in itself may be helpful for organizationsand individuals who are determining "policies" in thisarea. And for those bloggers who want their contentread as widely as possible, they are free to put astatement on their blogs to the effect that thecontent may be freely used without permission.

judsoN = computer artist for shows internationally on stages, galleries and the web, and the Artistic Director of Plasma Studii, a non-profit arts organization in New York. His goal is to use technology as a tool to fuse arbitrary distinctions in art, such as dance and sculpture, color and sound frequencies, stages and web sites. His live interactive pieces appear in such venues as plays in circus tents across Europe, installations for places like the Arts Council of Mildura, Australia, on web sites at ISCAM (in Istanbul) and cTheory for Cornell University (twice). His artwork published in books (US, Europe, South America) and on CD-Roms worldwide. Studied choreography under Doug Elkins, music composition with a student of Stockhausen.